1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments having a comparator for evaluating tissue vitality during surgery. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to surgical instruments incorporating a tissue vitality comparator having a light pipe with fiber optic imaging bundle to convey an image of a specific area of tissue, contained within the jaws of the surgical instrument, to a surgeon.
2. Background of Related Art
Various surgical instruments are known in the art which are useful in performing operations on specific areas of tissue. Typically, the areas of tissue operated on are diseased or otherwise in need of surgical intervention.
Most such surgical instruments are designed to capture tissue between one or more jaws associated with the surgical instruments. Operations typically performed with these surgical instruments may include grasping, cutting, stapling, obtaining tissue measurements, etc. One type of surgical instrument incorporates jaw structure which move in pivotal fashion relative to each other in order to grasp and operate on tissue captured therebetween.
Alternative types of surgical instruments have jaw structure which move parallel to each other to grasp and manipulate tissue. Such instruments may include general gastrointestinal staplers, end to end anastomosis devices used to connect tubular tissue sections, etc. Additionally, instruments such as tissue measuring devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,232 to Green et al. incorporate parallel jaw movement to obtain accurate measurements of tissue thickness.
During operation of these various surgical instruments it is often necessary to position the jaw structure relative to specific areas of tissue. This is typically accomplished by direct visual observation of the tissue in question. Often however, the tissue is obscured or other wise inhibited from view. Furthermore, in some instances, when direct observation of tissue is used to position the surgical instrument relative to tissue, the positioning of the surgical instrument is difficult to position accurately. It is also desirable to determine the condition of tissue prior to operation of a surgical instrument on the tissue.
Thus, there exists a need for a surgical instrument having an optical system for accurately positioning jaws associated with the surgical instrument relative to the tissue section desired to be operated upon. Furthermore, there exists a need for a surgical instrument having a reference chart or graph for comparing the images observed through the optical system with known reference images to more accurately position the surgical instrument relative to the tissue.